Agenda and minutes

There were no urgent items of business.

RESOLVED – That the Minutes of the meeting of that Standards Committee held on 21 November 2019 be APPROVED as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

·         Disclosable Pecuniary Interest;

·         Other interests.

There were no declarations of interest.

Paul Rushworth (Corporate Services Manager (Legal and Elections) and Deputy Monitoring Officer) presented the report following a review in 2018 of local government ethical standards by the Committee for Standards in Public Life. The review found that there was inconsistency between codes of conduct in local authorities. It was therefore recommended that the Local Government Association (LGA) should produce a new national ‘model code’ which took into account changes to the political environment, such as the increasing use of social media in public life, with the discretion for individual authorities to adapt the model code to fit local circumstances.

The LGA had reviewed their previous Model Code and had conducted a consultation exercise. The final version of the Code was to be offered as a template for councils to adopt in whole and / or with local amendments.

During discussion, it was noted that changes to legislation were needed in order to determine whether or not a person was acting in their role as a District Councillor. It was pointed out that a further ‘Webinar’ was due to take place on 17 September 2020. When the Model Code returns from LGA, it was for the Council to decide whether or not to adopt it. The same also applied to Town and Parish Councils. Training would be provided at that time.

RESOLVED – That the report be NOTED.

The Chair to move:-

"That pursuant to Section 100A(2) and (4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or nature of the proceedings whereby it is likely that exempt information as defined in Section 100A (3) of the Act would be disclosed to the public in breach of the obligation of confidence or exempt information as defined in Section 100I (1) of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act would be disclosed to the public by virtue of the paragraphs indicated."

RESOLVED:

That, pursuant to Section 100A(2) and (4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings whereby it is likely that confidential information as defined in Section 100A (3) of the Act would be disclosed to the public in breach of the obligation of confidence or exempt information as defined in Section 100 I (1)  of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act would be disclosed to the public by virtue of the Paragraphs indicated.

Members considered the Exempt Minutes of the meeting held on 21 November 2019.

Members considered a report on complaints made under the Code of Conduct in the period since the committee previously met.